Table Of Contents

Table Of Contents

Chapter 1: Making The Music You Love Is The Only Way To Make Music Other People Love

Chapter 2: What We Enjoy About Music

Chapter 3: The Balance Of The Head And The Heart

Chapter 4: Finding Your Voice And Intent

Chapter 5: Standards, Taste And What Is Perfect?

Chapter 6: The Race Against A Loss Of Objectivity

Chapter 7: Inspiration, Research And Fluency

Chapter 8: Incubation, Flow States And Retention

Chapter 9: Building A Better Album

Chapter 10: Drafting And Development

Chapter 11: Executing Your Emotional Expression

Chapter 12: Creating A Nurturing Collaboration

Chapter 13: Hearing And Giving Criticism

Chapter 14: Gaining Creative Momentum

Chapter 15: Engineering Your Environment For Creativity

Chapter 16: Sustaining Creativity

Outro

Further Reading

Synopsis

Synopsis

Synopsis

When trying to navigate the ways our creative endeavors fail, there’s no YouTube tutorial, listicle or college course that can help you navigate the countless creative pitfalls that can ruin your music. While every musician says that being creative is the most important part of their life, they barely explore what’s holding back them back from making music they are happy with. If you’ve had trouble getting your music to be as good as the musicians you look up to, then this book can help you understand the practices they use to make their music so great.

After writing one of the most popular books on the music business, Jesse Cannon decided to write about the only subject he knew even more about: helping musicians fulfill their creative vision. As a producer, engineer, mixer or mastering engineer on thousands of albums, including The Cure, Animal Collective, The Misfits, Dillinger Escape Plan and The Menzingers, he’s helped countless musicians reach their creative vision. He’s crafted a book that exposes life-changing knowledge that can be read in under a day that identifies the patterns and essential knowledge he helps bring to musicians each day. The result is a short, detailed read that will leave even the most advanced creators with a new perspective on how to make music they’re more happy with.

There are no rules to being creative, but there's research and considerations that can help you make better decisions, get past the breakdowns in your process and enhance the emotional impact your songs have on others. The essential ideas on creating music are detailed in a simple, fun language that’s littered with quotes and insight from the most innovative creators of our time that discusses subjects like:

How to make highly emotional music that makes listeners compelled to listen again and again.

Effectively dealing with collaborative problems like “too many chefs in the kitchen,” giving helpful criticism or dealing with stubborn collaborators.

Finding inspiration to develop into music that’s uniquely your own.

How to draft your songs while avoiding the common pitfalls of losing perspective and giving up.

Examining the unexpected reasons we enjoy music.

Calming your thoughts so they don’t sabotage your music and other helpful tools to help execute your music as best as possible.

Whether you're a music fan, producer, songwriter or musician, there's no book with more helpful ideas that can help make everything you create in the future better.